Tips & Tricks Busy Professionals Can Use to Simplify Their Lives

Compliments of Ribary & Associates, LLC

www.tiaribary.com

August 2006

Follow up systems to ensure success

(Part 2 of a 3 part series)

I truly believe follow up is the key to every business’s success. In this tip, we’ll explore systems to help you follow up.

Any system, whether it is electronic or paper, is only as good as you make it. When choosing a system to ensure you follow up in a timely manner, it’s important to honor your personal style. Do you prefer an electronic calendar or paper? Will you record contacts in a phone book, file, or in a contact manager program? Do you keep a notepad with you, or would you prefer to carry a personal recorder to take notes on the go?

Paper Systems

Paper is a great option for those not comfortable with electronic calendars and contact managers; however, you will need to be careful you are diligent and carry incomplete items forward to a future date. 

For example, let’s say you meet a prospect at a networking meeting and need to schedule time to follow up. You should add that person, including their phone number, to the appropriate date for follow up. You may also record notes about the individual on that calendar page, or you may have another location for this type of information (such as a notepad or prospect file). If you are unable to reach that person on that specific date, you will need to make a new entry on a future date to call them again. If you neglect to do this, that prospect may slip through the cracks, and you may lose a future client.

Contacts should be organized so that you can retrieve a person’s information quickly and easily. This includes notes about the prospects needs. Will you create a new file for each prospect? This would make it easy to retrieve contact information and notes, but could be time consuming to set up before a prospect is qualified.

Will you organize business cards in a notebook, or in a rolodex? How will you find that prospect or vendor you met two months ago and now need to call?

There are several paper-based options to help keep you organized and the one you choose should be easy to use on a consistent basis.

Electronic Systems

You have only to enter “Contact Managers” in your favorite search engine to realize that there are many options out there. They all have their own way of essentially doing the same thing (though the level of detail may vary). They track your contacts, your meetings, and your phone calls – basically they can keep track of everything that you do with a contact.

A Day in the Life of a Contact Manager

When you meet with a prospect that you want to follow up with, here is an example of the process you may go through using an electronic contact manager:

1. Write a date for follow up on the business card, (or if you have a PDA, add the follow up date to your calendar directly).
2. Once back at your office, pull out the business cards you collected at the last event and determine who needs to be followed up with.
3. If you know you want to keep a person’s contact information, add them to your database. Include any notes you need to remember such as the type of service they are looking for, what they said they struggled with, etc.
4. Add a task to your calendar to follow up on the appropriate day.
   If you are not sure if this person needs to be in your database, simply add a task to the calendar to follow up on a specific date. Be sure to put their phone number on the calendar, just in case you misplace their business card.
5. Follow up on the date your calendar says to, and set an alarm reminder!
6. If you are unable to reach them, simply move the reminder forward to the next appropriate date.

Suggested electronic systems to consider

There are so many options available it can be overwhelming to decide on which contact manager to use. The two I am most familiar with are Microsoft Outlook and ACT!. Each has pros and cons and if you’re trying to figure out what would work best for you, I would be glad to assist you. I can also refer you to others who can help.

What system does Tia Ribary use?

I use a combination of all the systems above. I keep an electronic contact manager and calendar and I enter everything in there. As long as I enter a reminder or task while I’m thinking about it, I know I won’t forget to follow up in a week, or send that thank you card tomorrow.

I also keep a note pad on my desk that never leaves its spot. When I get a phone call, I take notes there. I also jot down to-do items when I need to do a brain dump and don’t feel like entering each item on my calendar. Then, the next day I can think about when each item needs to be completed and enter it on my calendar appropriately.

I’ve also just begun to carry a personal recorder. (It’s actually a very small MP3 that doubles as personal recorder.) So, when I’m in the car and need to note something, I can hit record and retrieve the note while I’m in my office. Until I’m in the habit of checking the player regularly, I can add a weekly reminder to my calendar to remind myself to check it. You could do the same thing by calling your voice mail to remind yourself of things. Or, you can keep a small notebook in your car and jot things down while at a red light.

Remember, a system is only as good as you make it, so make yours great!

Previously... Part 1: When to Follow Up

Next time… Part 3: How to follow up

Mark Your Calendars!

• August 29th - Share Our Strength's Restaurants for Relief 2. August 29th marks the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina - check out the website and enter your  zip code to find participating restaurants in your area that will be donating a portion of their sales to Gulf Coast relief efforts.

• September 1^st - Complimentary Realtor Training by Jason Stein “The Breakthrough Experience” See flyer for more information. Click here.

• September 19^th - WEO General Meeting. Brenda Lee of Pavelcom “Adapting and Thriving in a changing market. Click here to register.

Happy following up!

Tia Ribary, Professional Assistant

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